November 12 – November 18

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This is another public service announcement for videogame developers: If you are going to make a game, give it a title that can be searched on any search engine (Google, Bing, Pornhub – you know, the usuals). Someone seriously named their game “Video Game,” which may well be coming out, but I’ll be darned if I could find it anywhere.

That being said, there are a lot of games coming out this week, so let’s get to it.

Hitman 2 comes out this week. I won’t be getting it anytime soon, as I have yet to crack open three of the five maps from the previous Hitman game, but if the new maps stay true to the form of the ones I have played, they're likely to be pretty good. I look forward to hearing more stories about goofy easter eggs.

Bibi & Tina: Adventures with Horses looks like it could be the next Sparkle Ponies, which I’m always on the lookout for.

The Plague: Age of Chivalry takes that well worn Zombie Apocalypse formula and puts it in the Middle Ages. If the developer can do it without making any references to Army of Darkness, I will forever hold that person up as a paragon of self restraint.

Zvezda is an impossible-to-pronounce space dogfighting game. I put it here because it won a coin flip with Plastic Soldiers in the “which one tweaks Greg’s nostalgia bone more” contest.

Treasure Hunter Simulator looks like it took a more fully-fleshed-out version of that metal detector game I picked last year. Instead of just randomly wandering around beaches playing hot-hot-cold, you’re wandering around random historical sites playing hot-hot-cold. It looks like it has the potential to be mildly educational, and the developer is at least modest about what comes with the game. It says right on the Steam Page that the locations are only 10/12, so at least they know there’s always room for improvement.

I’m picking two games this week, because my wife and I both agree on them and I reckon that means I get two votes. Fallout 76 was my anniversary present to her, and judging by the beta it’s exactly how we want to play Fallout: Just wander around collecting stuff, without fussing about a story that’s probably going to be intensely disappointing anyway. The only thing I hope they add is an offline mode, because the current plan to allow people to opt out of PVP is “pacifist mode,” which only means that you can’t shoot anyone, but they can still kill you. That’s not so much “opt out” as “make people who use pacifist mode quit the game so we don’t have to deal with them.” We’ll see how it goes, but it’s still Fallout, so it still gets my Game of the Week.

Our second pick is Pokemon Let’s Go: Pikachu (Because to heck with Eevee. He’s the Nermal of the Pokemon universe). We even bought the version with the little pokeball controller. My expectations are not high for myself, but for playing with my kids it is a game that I am excitedly anticipating. Make sure that wrist lanyard is snug, though.

That makes two one-off games from major franchises for the win! Fallout 76 and Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu both win my game(s) of the week!

Felix “I just need to go to the bathroom … again” Threepaper

What a week to have no Internet!

Still, it comes down to 2 games for me this week: Fallout 76 and Hitman 2.

Now, I loves me some Fallout – I played a bunch of Fallout 4 just this weekend, as it happens – but I’m too wary of bugs to jump into Fallout 76 at launch. And when I say “bugs”, I’m not talking about Radroaches.

Hitman 2, on the other hand, will be shiny from the get-go. The 2016 Hitman offered a template for open-ended stealth that has only been matched by MGS V and Dishonored 2. It delivers on the promise that I thought was being made by the original Assassin’s Creed before it got iterated into World of Far Cry. No other game uses so well the “steal someone’s clothes and impersonate them” mechanic – I’m surprised it isn’t used more in other games, honestly. I am also impressed by how creatively Hitman encourages you to replay and savour its levels.

This time around, the episodic release schedule is gone: you get 6 levels from the top, with a couple of DLC expansions planned. Also, I hear that you’ll even get the previous game. Hitman 2 is GOTW.

I hope Hitman 2 can do well. I'm starting to feel like there's a lot of these ...ugh... "hardcore" properties that are just always going to get out-shined in the holiday season. Every big publisher wants their big Christmas seller, but then you keep hearing about games that don't meet sales expectations. Meanwhile, Monster Hunter World comes out in a less busy time of year (that sadly is becoming quite cluttered in 2019) and pushes past expectations.

I feel like if you aren't a major annual franchise, you need to consider whether your game truly has the clout to be at the top of wish lists and priority lists rather than number four or five. I think a game like Hitman would probably do better in a summer month, but releasing now? Hrm...

I could be wrong, but if you're not something for a drastically different market like JRPG's, then you'd best move along to Q1 or Q2 of the year (just not February or March, unless you're absolutely certain of your clout, because that's getting crowded as well).

I hope Hitman 2 can do well. I'm starting to feel like there's a lot of these ...ugh... "hardcore" properties that are just always going to get out-shined in the holiday season. Every big publisher wants their big Christmas seller, but then you keep hearing about games that don't meet sales expectations. Meanwhile, Monster Hunter World comes out in a less busy time of year (that sadly is becoming quite cluttered in 2019) and pushes past expectations.

I feel like if you aren't a major annual franchise, you need to consider whether your game truly has the clout to be at the top of wish lists and priority lists rather than number four or five. I think a game like Hitman would probably do better in a summer month, but releasing now? Hrm...

I could be wrong, but if you're not something for a drastically different market like JRPG's, then you'd best move along to Q1 or Q2 of the year (just not February or March, unless you're absolutely certain of your clout, because that's getting crowded as well).

Hitman is in a weird place due to being Io’s baby and they need it to do really well. I hope they can do some Ubisoft magic and keep people coming back to it. Summer would be great but probably timing wasn’t on IO’s side with the whole separation from Square.

Did you guys give any more thought to sorting the lists by MSRP so the big games float to the top?

I haven’t looked into that, mostly because that information isn’t consistently (or easily) available before release. Titles that aren’t available to preorder don’t always have official storefront pages, and the ones that have store pages don’t reliably have price information prior to release.

It’s not a bad idea, it just adds a significant amount of work to something that’s already eating up 2+ hours of my Saturdays. That said, if you know a site that has all the releases and prices listed in a way that’s easy to copy and paste to a spreadsheet, I’m all ears.

Jonman Wrote:
Yes, you can cancel Darksiders, but only by using your Sony Golds. Which, while pretty good, aren't a patch on Zelda.

Fallout 76 was my anniversary present to her, and judging by the beta it’s exactly how we want to play Fallout: Just wander around collecting stuff, without fussing about a story that’s probably going to be intensely disappointing anyway.

Hear, hear!

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy is the one for me... had it on pre-order and I've now played it and I have to say I am thoroughly satisfied with what was delivered. What an amazing job Toys for Bob did with this remake.